Monday, June 2, 2014

Hi all! As part of the blog tour for Sarah Daltry's blog tour for her Flowering series, we have a couple of playlists for you today! Sarah has also graciously included a brief explanation as to why each song is included on the playlists for Orange Blossom and Ambrosia, and we hope you'll enjoy.

We've also included a little bit about Orange Blossom and Ambrosia, including small teasers, in case you haven't read them yet! And don't forget to enter to win all kinds of signed paperbacks and swag from Sarah! The giveaway is located at the end of this post - just click the giveaway image to be taken to the Rafflecopter form!

Orange Blossom

“I’ve never understood a year. A year was always a measurement of something bad for me. A year in my father’s prison sentence, a year since my mom’s death, a year left of school before I could get far, far away from here. Now, as I look down the end of my college career, with only a little more than a semester to go, a year seems like something magical. It has been a year since Lily chose me, since she sat with me on the old swing set and made a decision that I was worthy of her. And every minute of the entire year has been better than the last.” You already know their stories: Lily, the perfect princess, always living someone else’s life. And Jack, the broken boy, who had stopped believing in hope. Somehow, though, they found each other and what was one night blossomed into a love story.

Now, a year later, Jack and Lily are dreaming of the future. Despite all of his promises to himself that he would never be indebted to anyone, Jack makes a new promise – this time to Lily – that he will be there for her forever. But when life unravels for them, he starts to pull away, and Lily worries he’s out of reach for good.

Orange Blossom Playlist

Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana - I'm sure it's because I'm a 90's girl but Nirvana sort of encapsulates Jack for me. His misery and darkness but also this desire for something else. This song is sort of an angry and hopeless love song and I think Jack goes through a lot of that in this book.

Vague by Secret Stars - I think of Jack and Lily in these lyrics. They're young and they love each other but they can't really put it into words.

Trapeze Swinger by Iron and Wine - I just adore this song. It feels so personal. It kind of captures those little things you develop in a relationship. Kind of like inside jokes but more inside life. I picture so many personal memories in this song, written it feels for one individual.

Have You Forgotten by Red House Painters - This is twofold. One, I see this almost like Jack and Alana's anthem as it's a song about childhood from the POV of someone who grew up alongside you. Also the line "have you forgotten how to love yourself?" I wonder if Jack ever learned how in the first place.

Nightswimming by REM - Again this song just feels intimate and although Jack and Lily's secret spot is on a cliffside and they can't swim there, I still think of this song.

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac - This one is a little personal but the song is about growing up, as is the novel. Also, when I was in high school, this song had a revival and for some reason, when I think about my own thoughts of suicide when I was younger, this song seems to figure prominently. Not in a bad way. Just in the way that it forms the background to a stage of my life.

Thank U by Alanis Morissette - I love this song beacsue it's hopeful. It's not a foolish hope but a willingness to take a risk on life. In this novel, Jack is forced to truly choose to keep fighting and he does. However it's not one of those choices where it's all uphill after.

This is the Time by Billy Joel - Really, is there a better period in life than starting your journey? The end of college, engagement, your first apartment.

Troubled Times by Fountains of Wayne - Kind of self explanatory, really. They did make it through the troubled times. Several times over.

Hey There Delilah by Plain White Ts - I have no idea except I like this song and I picture Jack singing something like this to Lily, with all his plans for them.

Kelsey by Metro Station - I think both Jack and Lily would swim the ocean for the other. Also this song is about someone who knows your pain.

Haunted by Taylor Swift - I kind of just like this song.

Ambrosia

Four years. One night that was supposed to be an escape turned into four years. And now, four years is about to turn into forever.

Lily was never anything special. A perfect girl from a perfect world living an empty life. She was lost, thinking she knew who she was and what she wanted. She thought she knew love, but then there was a boy.

Jack has been through Hell. Watching his mother die - at his father’s hands - will never leave him. He had given up on living a life, figuring he would drink himself to death, if he didn’t give in to all the voices telling him to kill himself first. And then there was a girl who smelled like strawberries.

Two years have passed since Orange Blossom. Jack and Lily are only months away from their wedding and their journey is about to come to an end. Join them in the final title in the Flowering series, a story of growing up, of finding yourself, and of “blooming.”

Ambrosia Playlist

Daydream Believer by The Monkees - Lily just seems like such a light person and this song is kind of about someone falling for that perfect girl.

All My Loving from Across the Universe - The final book is about the wedding and this is a great love song.

Least Complicated by Indigo Girls - "The hardest to learn was the least complicated." That kind of epitomizes growing up and their relationship.

Teenage Dream by Katy Perry - Lily says Jack still makes her feel like his first love and although he wasnt innocent when they met, she really is in a way.

Snow Cherries from France by Tori Amos - Their honeymoon is in Paris and I require Tori so that's really the only connection.

Old Pine by Ben Howard - This song is about loving and appreciating simplicity and what you have. Ambrosia is a little boring, I guess, if you aren't interested in the simple parts of love.

Lucky Now by Ryan Adam - Probably the best song I've ever heard about growing up.

Daughter by Loudon Wainwright III - Lily dances to this with her dad at the wedding.

Come What May by Moulin Rouge - Jack and Lily's wedding song. And I mean, the lyrics are 100% suited to them. Even the whole "winter to spring." These are those things writers do (especially former English teachers) and are often missed but the first three books are set in fall and winter. Orange Blossom is winter to spring and Ambrosia is summer. The series is called Flowering. There was a while deliberate growth and healing process in the books and a growing up. Also they watch the movie as part of Jack's Paris night.

Everything by Alanis Morissette - If Jack as Lily didn't already have a wedding song, this would be it. This also epitomizes their relationship.

About Sarah Daltry

Sarah Daltry is a girl who writes books. The books are in all genres, because Sarah’s not so great at committing to things. She’s happily married and she and her husband live with their cats in New England. Sarah is painfully shy and, if you are able to find her, she is probably in a corner, hiding. She has also written the urban fantasy romance, Bitter Fruits; the YA gamer geek comedy, Backward Compatible; the literary reimagining, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; historical erotica, The Quiver of a Kiss; and a variety of erotica and short stories.